Strawberry Blonde Ale - yeast recommendation

[McBainne]

I'm tweeking a Strawberry Blonde Ale recipe and deciding on either Wyeast 1056 American Ale or 1272 American Ale II. Anyone have experience with either of these in a Blonde Ale they would like to share? I'm looking to get a strong fruit flavor from just the malt, hops and yeast without adding strawberries or a strawberry extract.

 

[wolfman_48442]

1056 is just too clean, in my opinion. I don't think you could get it to give you any fruit flavors.
1272, if used a little higher in the temp range (70-72) might get you some fruitiness, but you want to ramp it up (pitch at 65, let rise to 70-72 over 2 or 3 days, hold it there) to avoid fusels.
I'm not sure if it would give you strawberry, though. Maybe someone else has tried this?

Interesting experiment, though, good luck!

 

[paraordnance]

I dont think you can get strawberry flavor/aroma without using actual fruit. I made Strawberry Blonde few months ago using 3 lbs of fresh strawberries in keg and NOT letting them to ferment out by keeping cool all the time. It was strawberry goodness withoiut any tartness as others report when they added fruit to primary/secondary.

1272 is good yeast and I use it for all my Pale Ales and Blondes. Is really clean and malty around 62-64F and if you want hops to shine through ferment around 68-70F

 

[McBainne]

Wolfman - Thanks for the information
Para- Can you give a little more detail on how you introduced the berries? Sounds like an interesting approach.

 

[paraordnance]

Wolfman - Thanks for the information
Para- Can you give a little more detail on how you introduced the berries? Sounds like an interesting approach.

my wife really likes "Fruli" strawberry beer. Its says on bottle that they mix beer and strawberry juice. I been reading all over the web that people use strawberries in primary or secondary and let them ferment out, which leaves tartness as others noted. I didn't want that. I wanted as much of the real strawberry flavor and aroma in my beer as possible so I decided against conventional method of using fruit and I did not let juices from fruit to ferment out for that reason. The beer sat 1 month in primary, gelatine to remove as much yeast as possible, than transfer clear beer to keg. Then I quartered and froze 3 lbs of fresh strawberries (5 gal batch) and "dryhopped" with them my keg of Belgian Blonde. In muslin bag I left frozen berries in keg for a week. This is all done @ 38-40F to avoid any fermentation! This will only work if you keg. Impossible to do if you bottle since additional sugars from berries can result in bottle bombs later. Results - pure strawberry goodnes. As real as its gets Now I want to make strawberry infused lager

 

[McBainne]

That's a great idea, it's the first I've heard of that method, I'll try it on my next batch of Stawberry Blonde.

 

[McBainne]

Para, I just tried my first Strawberry Wheat Ale using your fruit addition technique. The result is a lightly sweet wheat beer with a strong, fresh strawberry aroma, I mean it smells like you stuck your nose in a pint of a freshly picked berries, with the flavor to match. I'll be trying this again with a Blueberry Wheat Ale.